Cliché, to many photographers this is a dirty word.  Photographs of Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View, the Tetons from Ox Bow Bend, the Watchman in Zion from the bridge, Delicate Arch – all are considered by many to be clichés.

What exactly is a cliché?  Something that has lost its originality, ingenuity, impact from long overuse.  In other words, it’s been done before – and many times.  Some have gone so far as to suggest that there are no photographs left in Yosemite Valley that are not clichés.

Not all of us agree.

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I finally got a chance to work on a few more Eastern Sierra workshop photographs from June.  It’s amazing how many things barge to the front of the line.  But I finally got to these.  I hope you enjoy them.

Alabama Hills Vignette

This one was taken before the workshop started.  It’s just one more wonder to be found in the Alabama Hills.  I get a very quite feeling from this one.

Lone Pine Creek 2

One of the exercises we did during the workshop was to photograph the chapter, paragraph and sentence on Lone Pine Creek at Whitney Portal.  This was my sentence photograph.  The water is swirling around the rocks going every which way.  This image captures the whole turbulence of the cascade in this little microcosm.

Bristlecone Dusk

I keep coming back to this bristlecone pine in the White Mountains.  And each year the interpretation is different.  It was somewhat overcast this year and as night was coming on the clouds created subtle patterns in the sky.  One of the things I like about this tree is how it grows high above Great Basin.  It’s been here for thousands of years.  On this evening it softly glows as the day turns to night – one more time.

Half Dome Storm

The Tioga Pass road opened just a few days before we arrived in Lee Vining.  So there was no doubt that we would photograph sunset in Yosemite.  Olmsted Point provides a unique view of Half Dome from the back side.  As luck would have it a storm was rolling across the Sierra and we were there.  I love the power in this photograph.  When I look at the image I can’t help thinking how good it would look in a Southern California arts and crafts style house.

These will be up on my website soon but I wanted to give you a preview.

Join me on an upcoming workshop.

To see more of my photographs click here.

I have what I think is a fun idea that can lead to an interesting discussion.  Let me explain.

I often think of art in general and photography in particular as involving two very important elements – creative vocabulary and interpretive decisions.  Creative vocabulary is the knowledge, skills and techniques we use as artists and just like our verbal vocabulary, we use the ‘words’ in our creative vocabulary to express ourselves.  As we grow as artists our creative vocabulary grows and we are able to more fully and richly communicate our thoughts and feelings.

Interpretive decisions recognizes the fact that each of us has a unique world view and a unique thing to say.  When creating a work of art we make numerous decisions, decisions that shape the way we interpret our subject and thereby communicate what it is we have to say about it.

So, this leads to my fun idea.

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I just read a great email from Brian Peterson, founder of The Perfect Picture School of Photography.  He ran an unscientific opinion pole on whether photographers felt it was OK to dramatically alter photographs in Photoshop.  Now, by ‘dramatically alter,’ Brian means to add major elements to an image that were not present in the original scene or make other major changes that alter the content of the image. 

He has a provocative blog post with the title that starts, “Every photograph is a ‘lie,…’,  In it he raises the excellent point that even those photographs that aren’t altered in Photoshop are still an abstraction of reality and thus a ‘lie.’  I recommend you read it.

What were the results of his opinion pole?  Brian reports that 41% of photographers felt that it is OK to dramatically alter images in Photoshop and NOT tell anyone unless asked.  And if asked, some would say, “It’s none of your business.”  The reason photographers felt this way boiled down to two words – Artistic License.

I have my own thoughts on “artistic license” and would like to share them with you.

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Lightroom 3 came in the mail yesterday (along with CS5) so today I’m trying it out.  There’s not a lot of new functionality like there was when LR2 introduced local adjustments.  But there are some new things I’m really excited about.

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Landscape photographers love to photograph moving water – waterfalls, rapids, even water quietly slipping over a rock.

When photographing moving water the primary exposure consideration is shutter speed.  A very short shutter speed, say 1/500 sec, can produce the ‘ice sculpture’ look’ in which the water is suspended in shiny, crystal clear forms.  This can be very effective and exciting.  As the shutter speed is lengthened, say to 1/15 sec,  the water begins to blur.  First you see little short traces of each of the drops.  Then as the exposure lengthens to a half second or more the traces merge together into the beautiful effects we love.  Really long exposure of 2 or more seconds produce a misty effect in which nearly all texture in the water is replaced with soft clouds of light.

But how do you get the long exposures you need, especially on a bright sunny day.

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Sunset, Owens Valley

Originally uploaded by Ralph Nordstrom

The Eastern Sierra are known for their incredible cuinstes.  We got this one during the workshop.

Mobius Arch Alabama Hills

Originally uploaded by Ralph Nordstrom

This morning we shot Mobius Arch in the Alabama Hills. A beautiful sunrise it was.

Mt Williamson Sunrise

Originally uploaded by Ralph Nordstrom

Mt Williamson is one of my favorite peaks on the Eastern Sierra crest. At over 14,000 feet is is also one of the highest. This morning I was there in time to enjoy an exhilarating sunrise.

silo round valley

Originally uploaded by Ralph Nordstrom

The workshop begins in three days and this is one of the spots we’ll photograph. Round Valley is just outside Bishop, CA.